“After graduating from the Universidad de El Salvador, I spent six months as a trade policy intern at the Ministry of Economics, worked for a year at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and then spent three productive years at Exporta El Salvador, my country’s official trade promotion arm. To advance to the next level, I needed to signigicantly improve my academic and professional skills. The Fulbright Foreign Student Program and the University of Kentucky gave me the chance to do exactly that with the opportunity to obtain my masters degree from the Patterson School. After graduating in May 2009, I returned to El Salvador to serve my country.

Over the past year, my professional work has centered on international trade and competitiveness, helping collaborate in the development of El Salvador’s export promotion policy. This policy aims to promote exports through instruments consistent with WTO regulations. Working closely with my country’s Vice Minister of Economics, I have had the chance not just to study, but ‘to live’ the entire policy process in a developing country. One of the lessons that I take away from this experience is the importance of protecting the interests of those people who are not represented by private sector associations or other civic society pressure groups.

An export promotion policy alone can never be enough to assure the success of companies, at either the national and international level. Therefore, I have been tasked with a major project to assess the competitiveness of El Salvador’s strategic economic sectors in order to make policy recommendations for their development to the Economics Ministry’s leadership. This experience has greatly enriched my view and understanding of international trade and development.

I owe a deep debt of gratitude to all the Patterson School – faculty, staff and my student colleagues -- and to the University of Kentucky for their warm hospitality, friendship, and the significant contribution they helped make to my academic development. ”